The Texas student who sued over her school's insistence that she wear an RFID-embedded ID card has lost her appeal. The school had offered to issue her an RFID-free ID badge, but her family felt that the ID badge itself was related to the "mark of the beast" and asked the court to find that their religious freedoms were being infringed. The court disagreed.

  • andygates

    Apparently the objection was on the grounds of a *numerical identifier*… which begs the question, have they heard of ASCII (which encodes text as numbers), or Godel (which encodes math, and therefore everything ever), because if they haven’t, bricks will be shat.

    • Nylund

      So does no one in her family have a SSN, a Driver’s License, any utility accounts, banks accounts, credit cards, etc? Numerical identifiers, even ignoring the ASCII issue, are pretty much everywhere.

      • Joshua Borgardt

        In reply to the possibility that her family members may or may not have a SSN: It is likely that some, if not most do not have one considering their view on identification.

        Technically speaking, in their opinion, one could only assume that life as an American citizen without, being a true American in their opinion, one that excludes all identification, can be a freeing experience.

        Just imagine, laws that pertain to your life are of the constitution only, and any state laws written under the social security act, which counts for a gross majority, are void. Yes, puns are an intent.

        Just remember, if your an American Citizen – your a king just like your neighbor. Just dont get a SSN. Then your slave to expectancy.

        • elix

          How’s that Freeman on the Land thing working out for you?

          No, wait, that’s not the exact brand of crackpot tax evasion delusion that you’re proposing. 

          • Joshua Borgardt

            Quite well actually.

            Who said anything about tax evasion?

          • C W

            You said a whole lot of coalesced babble.

          • elix

            Here’s a hint: You don’t get to opt out of the law, and you don’t get to declare that the only law you obey is that which is explicitly contained in the Constitution. Just don’t turn it into an armed standoff when you get pulled over by the highway patrol for having no license or plates (because the state law “doesn’t apply to you”).

        • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

          It’s you’re, YOU’RE!

        • Petzl

          Just so you know, when you’re an American, federal, state, county, and town laws apply to you, depending on which state, county, and town you happen to be resident.

        • C W

          “Just remember, if your an American Citizen – your a king just like your neighbor. Just dont get a SSN. Then your slave to expectancy.”

          I love self-appointed legal experts. They’re the smartest!

  • http://twitter.com/fit0hit0 Azúl Clarito

    welcome to texas

  • http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai

    Does this set any precedent for privacy concerns or just, you know, people with outrageous supernatural beliefs?

  • http://SpeakEZLanguages.com/ Dee

    I read that article head as “Student loses badge case.”  Hmm sad to loose the case you carry your badge in, but newsworthy?

    Also seems that one shouldn’t need strange religious beliefs to oppose this or opt out.  And  ”move or go to another school, or go to a private school” are not really responses and not really options for most students and their families.

    We visited a local middle school / junior high a few weeks before Christmas and we were shocked at both the security measures and the prison-like environment.

    Just what are we doing to our children and what are we “educating” them and “training” them for?  Seems to me too many parents and adults are not aware of exactly what the every-day experience of our children is like and what it’s doing to them.

    You want safety and security?  SuperMax prison is a very safe place for internees.  It’s just not a particularly good environment for educating and socializing our children in preparation for productive citizenship.

    • winkybb

      It’s “lose”, “LOSE”!

      • http://SpeakEZLanguages.com/ Dee

        yeah, loses. does it bug you when you saw incompatent grammars being use at the interwebs?

        • LYNDON

          I think ‘spellings’ or ‘usages’ would be correcter than ‘grammars’.

        • chgoliz

          Congratulations: you gave me a conniption fit.

  • http://twitter.com/BonzoDog1 BonzoDog1

    I would have filed the suit just so I could say in court “We don’t need to show you no stinking badges!”

  • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

    Was disappointed to learn that this wasn’t a story about someone losing an ID badge.

  • http://twitter.com/anderalert Pat Eisel

    Ok, yes, read all previous comments…but, DID THEY FIND THE CASE?

  • http://www.jeremiahblatz.com/ Jeremiah Blatz

    While the school’s arphid badge rule is creepy and kinda stupid, this is probably the right outcome.

    • Frank W

      I don think so. Never mind what these people believe, that’s their business. The difference between a school and a prison is wearing thin.

      • http://www.jeremiahblatz.com/ Jeremiah Blatz

        Don’t misunderstand, I hate the RFID student tracking, and the incentives that led the school to think this was a good idea. However, the alternative in this case is a precedent that society has to give up anything that marginally conflicts with somebody’s kooky religious beliefs. That’s the problem; the court can’t say “you’re both nutjobs, both of you cut it out.” It has to declare a winner and a loser, and I think they chose the right loser.

        Treating children like they’re inventory at a wall-mart warehouse is a bad idea, but this case was not the way to stop it.

        • Frank W

          I wouldn’t know how far making any sense gets you in a Texas courtroom, but if the school my kid is on would teach him he’s cattle, I’d sue.

          • C W

            And you’d lose, due to precedent that’s not about to change.

  • cfuse

    SATAN WINS! All glory to the dark lord.

    • http://contraditorium.com Carlos Cardoso

      Hail Satan!

  • http://twitter.com/dorkomatic Dorkomatic

    So are we all happy about living in an Orwellian nightmare now?

    • Don

      I still think the girl’s objections, and those of her family, are silly.  The school is responsible to know who is in the school building, and where the kids are at all times.  And the school offered to eliminate the RFID for her, to accomodate her superstitions, even though it would be harder to know precisely where she was.  She refused, because Jesus.

      Some people have offered a reasonable-sounding objection here to RFID badges, e.g. they’ll know when I’m using the bathroom, and we could argue those.  But this student had a completely nonsense complaint and got the verdict she deserved.  I just hope her lawyer was working on contingency.

    • C W

      No, but always happy when the most bullshit of religious arguments fail. This is a fully secular issue and should have been addressed (and would have lost) as such.

  • Macgruder

    She lost because she was unable to call the devil as a witness. Apparently he doesn’t feel comfortable hanging around with lawyers.

  • http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

    Mark of the Beast is no big deal. Our school had a dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. But we turned out fine.

  • John Ridley

    I suppose she’s going to refuse to get a driver’s license as well?  Those have numbers on them that uniquely identify an individual.  I hope she doesn’t have a social security card, or any credit cards either.